MUShare Scholarship, History, Art, Research, and Engagement Student Publications and Research Byrum School of Business 12-12-2018 MU Grocery Delivery Business Plan Emily Forkner Marian University - Indianapolis, [email protected] Matthew eJ nkins Marian University - Indianapolis, [email protected] Trey McCartney Marian University - Indianapolis, [email protected] Salem Padgett Marian University - Indianapolis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://mushare.marian.edu/bsob_sp Part of the Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons Recommended Citation Forkner, Emily; Jenkins, Matthew; McCartney, Trey; and Padgett, Salem, "MU Grocery Delivery Business Plan" (2018). Student Publications and Research. 1. https://mushare.marian.edu/bsob_sp/1 This Business Plan is brought to you for free and open access by the Byrum School of Business at MUShare. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of MUShare. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MU Grocery Delivery Business Plan December 2018 Emily Forkner, Matthew Jenkins, Trey McCartney, Salem Padgett Founders 3200 Cold Spring Road, Indianapolis, IN 46222 (765) 585-8055 [email protected] Table of Contents I. Executive Summary………………………………………..……………………………….....…. p.4-5 II. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..... p.6 III. Opportunity Analysis…………………………….……...……………………………………....... p. 7 A. Service Description……………………….…………………………………………………..…... p. 7 B. Target Markets…….……………………………………...………………………………..….…... p. 7 C. Survey & Results……………………………………………………………………… …………..p. 8 D. SWOT………………………………………………………………………………………....… p.8-11 E. Resources & Placement……………………………………………………………………...….. p.11 F. Competitive Analysis…………………………………..……………………………………… p.11-12 G. Proof of Demand……………………………...…………………………………………....… p.12-14 ​ ​ H. Macroeconomic Climate……………………………...……………….……………………........ p.14 I. Opportunity Cost……………………………..………………….……..…………………..…...… p.14 IV. Financial Analysis……………………..……………………………………………………..….. p.15 A. Service Price…………………………………………………………………………………….... p.15 B. Price Reasoning…………………………..………………………………………………...…..... p.15 C. Sales Forecast………………………………...…………………………………………....... p.15-16 D. Financial Statements……………………………………………………………..….....….... p.16-18 E. Scenario Analysis …………………………………………………………………….…....... p.18-19 F. Capital Needs……………………………………………………....……………………..….. p.19-20 1 V. Operation Plan……………………………………………………………………………..….….. p.21 A. How the Service Works……………………………..………………………………….…....….. p.21 B. Hours Worked……………………………..………………………………………………...... p.21-22 C. Gantt Chart…………………………………..………………………….……………….….....…. p.22 D. Organization…………………………………………………………………………………........ p.22 VI. Marketing Plan…………………………………………………………………….……..…….... p.23 A. Promotions…………………………………………………………………………………...….... p.23 B. Advertising…………………………………………………………………………………...……. p.23 C. Social Media………………………………………………………………………………………. p.24 D. Flyers………………………...…………………………………………………………..……..…. p.25 E. Shirts………………………..……………………………………………………………….....…. p.25 F. Business Cards…………………………..………………………………………………...….….. p.25 G. Commercial………………………………………………………………………………..….. p.25-26 VII. Exit Strategy……………………………………………………………………………...…....... p.27 VIII. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...…. p.28 IX. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………...……. p.29-37 2 3 I. Executive Summary MU Grocery Delivery is a premier grocery delivery service founded in 2018. In a thriving delivery industry, MU Grocery Delivery offers a friendly and familiar face when receiving your delivery. On top of the friendly and familiar face, MU Grocery Delivery also offers a less expensive option than our competitors. Using the software on Wix Editor, we have created a website that offers over 80 name brand items ranging from food items to toiletries. Our website shares pictures for each item and also offers multiple flavors or scents for many items. The fee our service charges is a 20% delivery fee, and this fee is already built into each item individually on the website. Using this method our customers will see the final price on the shop page and there will be no hidden or extra fees on the payment page. Most of our competitors require a dollar amount fee, a percentage based service fee, and a tip is encouraged. Part of the reason we are inexpensive is that we do not operate daily like other delivery businesses, instead we operate on a weekly basis. Customers are able to order from 12:00 p.m. Wednesday to 12:00 p.m. the following Tuesday, which is the day of delivery. On Tuesday, the groceries will be picked up, sorted, and delivered to a centralized location on Marian’s campus. This location is the Paul J Norman Center Hatchery, room 105. Groceries will be ready for customers to pick up from 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Tuesday night. There will also be a grace period in which customers can contact us and find a time to pick up their orders individually. We only have a few perishable items on 4 the website, so those will allow less of a grace period, but most items will be able to sit in the Hatchery for a few days. We have proven that this business can and will be successful by analyzing the macroeconomic climate of delivery businesses as well as conducting a trial run of our own. During our trial run we were very successful despite our lack of advertising. We grossed $91.28 and profited $62.28. This is a great time in the delivery business industry and we will bring this industry directly to Marian University’s front door. Marian Grocery Delivery is ready to transform the way Marian University students buy their groceries! 5 II. Introduction Mission Statement: MU Grocery Delivery is here to help the students of Marian ​ University change the way they get their groceries by offering a low cost grocery delivery service that will save students time and effort that they could be using for their school work or anything else they feel deserves their time and energy. Service Summary: MU Grocery Delivery is a quality grocery delivery service for ​ Marian University students. Our website has disclaimers and refund policy explanations. The home page features the date and time of delivery on Marian’s campus. We will deliver once a week and we deliver to a centralized location on campus, Norman Center room 105, and students will have an hour to come pick up their groceries from that location. The current time frame for students to pick their groceries up is Tuesday evenings from 8:00-9:00 pm. Having seen our home page, our customers will likely go to our online store page on the website. Our online store is comprised of products found at Walmart, Meijer, and Target stores. There are currently 80 items on our website. Many of these items have multiple varieties as well. The costs of the items are already pre-programmed with tax included on taxable items, as well as a 20% markup fee on each item individually. This 20% markup fee serves as our delivery fee. Objectives: MU Grocery Delivery projects that we will break even after 177 sales at an ​ average of $11 per sale. Based off our trial run, in which we received 41 orders at around $11 per sale, we believe that we can double the amount of orders reaching 82 orders per week. We are projected to break even within 3 weeks. At the conclusion of the spring semester, we are projected to have a net income of $2,152.54. Taking our net income and dividing this by the number of hours each team member worked, we will be making $19.13 per hour. 6 III. Opportunity Analysis A. Service Description Our team will be providing a service to the students of Marian University. We know that as college students it can be a difficult task to find time to make it to the grocery store. MU Grocery Delivery is a website based business (See Appendix, Item 1) that will receive the ​ ​ orders from our customers and bring their orders to campus from various grocery stores such as: Walmart, Meijer, and Target. B. Target Markets There are two ideal target markets of MU Grocery Delivery, students attending Marian and the family members of these students. Below are some statistics of Marian students straight from the Admissions Office: Students at Marian (3,595) ○ Students living in Marian dorms and apartments (1008) ○ Student without cars on campus (753) ○ Student athletes (620) ○ Graduate students (514) ○ Students with on-campus jobs (361). The second target market number will vary with everyone’s families being different. We will work to hit this large target audience by marketing to them mainly via Facebook. We will also retain emails of anyone who orders so that we can reach out to customers by email. We also intend to post flyers that parents will see when they visit campus. 7 C. Survey & Results MU Grocery Delivery conducted two surveys during the course of the fall semester. The first was sent to business students that we were able to connect with through Professor Crawford. Our survey results were as follows: ● Reached 86 people ● Majority of those who responded were Juniors. (27%) ● Majority of people shop for groceries at Walmart (37%) ● Majority of the individuals that answered said that their parents helped them pay for groceries (44%) After conducting our trial run, we sent another survey to the people that participated and our results were: ● Participants were highly satisfied (78%) ● Most students bought groceries twice a week (43%) ● The most popular day that students would use our website is Tuesday